Buffalo Cauliflower Bites Recipe

Hi everyone! Happy Thursday! Hope you guys are all hanging in there! 

I don’t know about you, but cooking every single night has forced me to be a little more creative with my meals! I’m really sticking to my nutrition during this quarantine because I have the time! Coming up with some items that fit my macros while not going to the grocery store as often has been my challenge, because as you know a lot of what I eat is fresh produce. 

Last night was a low carb night, but I really wanted to have something in my meal to look forward to (no offense to my grilled fish meals haha). I had been wanting to try and make Buffalo Cauliflower bites at home in the air fryer for quite some time, and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity. It got me excited for low carb night! 

It was SO easy and added a little flavor to my meal. This would make an awesome appetizer as well or even a lunch! 

Ingredients :

1 cauliflower head

1/2 cup franks red hot sauce 

2 tablespoons butter (melted) 

1 tablespoon olive oil 

Garlic powder to taste 

1/2 cup flour (I used unbleached) 

Instructions:

1. Cut cauliflower head into small pieces. 

2. Melt butter in large bowl. Add hot sauce and olive oil. 

3. Mix flour and garlic powder in a different large bowl. 

4. Dredge cauliflower pieces in hot sauce mixture, then into flour mixture. 

5. Turn fryer on to 390 degrees, cook for 15-20 mins. Make sure you shake/ flip! I like them crispy so kept them in a little longer!

6. Enjoy ❤️

Xo 

Alex

Friday Flow: 17 weeks & Our Go-to Recipe

Happy FRIDAY y'all! Hope this week has flown by for you and you have some fun weekend plans! I'm sharing a few random things today...Pregnancy, my thoughts on the post baby #2 photo shoot (and some advice!), and an AWESOME recipe thats been a go-to this summer for us! Let's get to it!  

17 weeks Pregnant

No news is good news, right??! I don't have anything to report over here, except that I've had a great week of working out, moving and being active. I also had pizza twice. lol. hey, its called #balance.

Workouts: I'm still able to hover around 8:30 splits when I run, and am doing very low, low box jumps lifting wise ((those will probs end very very soon)). Everything is pretty much fair game in the weight room except I've started to put some of my upper body lifting exercises (benching, free weights) on an incline.

Sleeping has been hit or miss. Some nights I'm really restless and then I think it catches up to me and I sleep like a log after a few nights of average sleep. It's crazy how much bigger I am with this baby than the first 2, I feel like I was hardly showing with my first at this point in time!! I guess thats called muscle memory ha.  I've had some heartburn and I'm still squeezing into my "postpartum" regular jean shorts (a size or two bigger than I was when I got pregnant).

I am actually really looking forward to some cooler temps in September and LESS humidity. MY RINGS have been a serious issue! Its been so humid I feel like my fingers are already swollen! EEEK! Some days I have been going without which honestly makes me feel naked. Ugh. I'm kind of like..this is happening already? Really? I haven't even hit 20 weeks. ha. 

Also, last but not least, YES I have felt the baby move :) 

Names- we have no idea. Naming a third baby in the same sex is pretty difficult!!
Any suggestions??! 

Weight wise I'm still hovering around 11 or 12 lb weight gain! 

Photo Shoot

So..truth be told I'm gonna be blitzing your timeline on insta over the next month or so with my shoot that I did when I was about 6 weeks pregnant. Even though I was already pregnant...I am so dang PROUD of the photos (and thanks to my girl Kristy for her awesome work during the shoot). Its funny how in the moment you're always criticizing yourself and thinking "I'm not enough"...but I look back on the photos and I feel this overwhelming sense of pride- for achieving a goal, for getting a piece of me back ((even if it was for only a month or so lol)), for following through with something I wanted to so badly, for the sacrifice and discipline. For fighting through the moments of doubt, moments of hard, hard mommin'. Moments of looking at myself and not even recognizing who that was in the mirror, but believing if I persisted it would lead me to my goal. 

So...this is just a reminder to all of us-its HUMAN NATURE to always want more. Of course I could be more "fit" looking in those photos. And now, My baby bump could be smaller and so could my ass. But its OKAY. I am enough...and so are you. And if you have that yearning for more...go for it. But still respect the hell out of yourself and your body in your current state! 

 

Recipe: Ground Turkey Fajita Bowl

Okay..even though my nutrition has been not quite as disciplined as I normally would be, I am still loving some healthy meals and wanted to share this awesome meal that is not only healthy, but EASY and FAST!! This has been on our weekly meal plan every. single. dang. week. 

Things I love about this recipe- awesome flavor, quick and easy, no cutting of meat (ground turkey #ftw!!), you can buy most of these ingredients pre-cut if you don't have time to prepare (or lets be honest don't feel like it ha) , its lower carb, and you don't need to know how to cook to make this!! 

Ingredients:

Green, Orange, Yellow Pepper Sliced
1 small onion sliced
1 Poblano Pepper sliced
Mushrooms (optional)
Simply Organic Fajita Simmer Sauce
Lettuce (cut)
1 Avocado pitted and sliced
1 lb Ground Turkey
 

Directions: 
1. Slice Onion, Peppers. Cut mushrooms if already not sliced. Heat oil in pan. Warm onion, until starting to brown. Add mushrooms, brown. Add peppers. Sautee for 4-5 minutes until softened. 

2. Remove vegetables from skillet. Add oil if pan is dry. Cook turkey. While turkey is cooking, slice lettuce and prepare avocado as a garnish. 

Ground turkey cooking...above is the boys fajita that we made for them for dinner!

3. When turkey is cooked, add Fajita sauce. Add vegetables. Stir an cook for 3-5 minutes. Let cool. Place in bowl with salad and avocado. Enjoy! 

Hope you guys all give this one a try! Have a great weekend! 

xo

Alex

Meal Plan Monday & snacks I'm loving

Anyone else have a sunshine hangover? Can we all just skip work today and celebrate SPRING and no more snow?! Kidding...{kind of} Hope you all had a great weekend and are ready to get after this week!

Today I'm sharing a unique recipe... Pork is not something I have in my usual meal rotation but this meal is actually super tasty, healthy, and even kids like it because its more sweet than spicy. The Hoisin sauce I use to flavor this meal is pretty low in sugar and carbs which makes me love this recipe even more.

Pork Stir fry with Snow Peas

Pork Tenderloin, cut into cubes
4 cloves garlic
1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled & minced (2 tablespoons)
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
2/3 pound Snow Peas
1/2 Red & Green Pepper, chopped
Mushrooms
3 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
1/4 cup water
Rice

1. Toss the pork with half the garlic, half the ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes. 
2. While pork is marinating, start cooking the rice. Heat a skillet over high heat and add olive oil.  Add the remaining garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add mushrooms and peppers. When mushrooms begin to sautee/peppers soften (3-4 mins), add sugar snap peas. Cook for 2-3 mins. Remove into a separate bowl to cool. 
3. Heat the same skillet used for the vegetables and cook the Pork mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Return the vegetable mixture to the skillet when Pork is nearly cooked through. Add the hoison sauce and soy sauce to taste, cook until juices thicken. I like to add 1/4 cup of water as the juice thickens- I think it makes it perfect to spread over the rice! Totally up to you though. 
4. Serve over rice and enjoy!! 

Snacks I'm loving

Also, I wanted to share a few snacks that I've been loving for me...and a few for the kids. My boys love the Nature's Bakery fig bars. I just saw today that they have an Organic Oat and Honey option so I snagged it and they LOVE them. I like how there is no high fructose corn syrup, that they're organic, and not too messy!

Strangely enough,  Neither of my boys like cow's milk. I don't really force it because I'm not super sold on cow's milk anyway...so we try to get their dairy through almond milk in their oatmeal, yogurt (Seb really isn't feeling it at the moment..hopefully that changes!) and various cheeses. These Horizon cheese stars are Max's favorites. I think he likes the taste as much as the different shapes :) These I have only been able to find at Target. Just what I need, another reason to "force" me to go into target..ha. 

I've completely overhauled my diet the last 3 weeks and cut out all sweets so finding alternatives for my sweet tooth has been a challenge to say the least. I've been loving the thinkthin Cake pops lately though. My favorite flavor definitely has to be the chocolate. Low sugar and it hits the spot after dinner when I crave something sweet!

Last but not least... is this Buff Bake Peanut Butter spread. GUYS. This is so freakin good. Not nearly as good as Nutella, or Peanut Butter Company  {{these are clearly off limits at the moment}},  but it certainly satisfies and packs some extra protein. Beggars can't be choosers at the moment so I'll take what I can get,  I love how these two treats are somewhat guilt free and help me satisfy that sweet tooth that never seems to disappear! 

Have a great week everyone! 

xo

Alex

5 Tips for for better Fitness/Wellness

Hi everyone! Hope you had an awesome holiday  with family and friends. I am slowly coming out of my candy coma! As most of you know, I weaned Seb a few weeks ago and I thought it would be perfect timing to start the Advocare 24 day Kick start the day after Easter! I knew I was going to splurge a little and it would be ideal to start the day after!

For those of you who don’t know, I did the Advocare 24 day challenge (what it was called back then, it’s since changed) after Max weaned and I had amazing results. It was definitely really challenging for me from a diet standpoint but honestly it was the best thing that happened to me. It showed me how much my body has changed postpartum and what works for me.. and what doesn’t- not only to feel good, but to look good! 

I’ll be sharing a lot of my recipes and what I’m eating over the next 3 weeks but for now I’m going to share 5 tips to getting healthy and fit and that I'll be living by! 

1. Commit yourself: This is probably the biggest one of all. You really have to be in the right state mentally and physically. For me, I’m always going to be busy so it’s more of a mental commitment and discipline for me that I need to focus on. If you aren't ready or committed for YOURSELF you won’t be successful. 

2. Meal prep: this is almost as important as #1. I usually try to prep all my lunch food at the beginning of the week and it sets me up for success. This includes preparing / having good snacks on hand! Some of my favorites are hard boiled eggs, nuts, protein bars (quest and Rx bars are my favorite) :) If I don't stay on track at lunch, it usually leads me to being overly hungry at nighttime...which is never good. lol. 

3. Drink lots of water: enough said! Water is so important to your health and it honestly can curb hunger too! 

4. Move more: This might seem super obvious....but its not! I know firsthand how hard it can be to get workouts in with commitments like family, kids, work... I honestly just vow to move more - whether that’s a walk with the kids or parking a little farther away in the parking lot, or standing/ moving at work when I’m on conference calls. I only get to the gym 2-3 days a week so the rest of the week it’s on me to try and get my 10,000 steps a day. That makes a huge difference in your overall wellness! You WILL see more of a difference if you can get workouts in, but know that just moving more and being spot on with your diet will still get you great results! 

5. My last piece of advice is one I’ve really lived by when getting my body back after baby #1: you will never remember the moments that you turned down that piece of candy, that piece of pizza, etc.  But if you have goals, you will always regret it! Discipline is choosing between what you want NOW and than what you want MOST!!! I honestly cannot tell you one time that I “missed” out on a moment because I said “no” to a food.

Keep in mind, I definitely splurge and live life.. but there are times where you have to be a little more strict to get what you want! That’s just life! If it were easy everyone would be fit. 

Have a great day everyone! 

Xo 

Alex

Thursday Thoughts 6/1/17

Hi everyone! Happy June! Hope you are all having an awesome {{shortened}} week! YASS to 4 day weeks! :) I had a quiet memorial day as my oldest was away with my parents at the races and hubby was away coaching. Let's talk about how EASY one kid is! I feel like I got so much done! Laundry, organizing, cleaning, down time and even some quiet time. 

I took Sebby to the grocery store, {{and because for once in my life I wasn't in a complete rush}} ALSO...sans car seat! Things will now be 83984542 times easier {and lighter} without lugging a car seat into said store. YASSSS. I grabbed some new items at the store...and I'm obsessed. First things first- the HERO bar. Literally tastes LIKE a candy bar. But isnt! Definitely try out Quest's newest amazing invention. 

Next...my husband is obsessed with ThinkThin's flavored oatmeal. I can't break away from my plain quaker oats with Peanut butter mixed in, but he SWEARS by the flavors he has tried. I guess it changes things up for him. Anyway, I was browsing at Wegmans and found ThinkThin Unwrapped Protein Bites (I chose peanut butter flavor of course). I decided to try them out. These are *awesome* when you need a quick snack..with only 170 cals, 22 g carbs for 8 pieces and 10 grams protein you can't go wrong!

Lastly. I cannot believe it has taken me so long to try Halo Top. Guys. This was so so good. I have been eating Arctic Zero the last 2 years, I can honestly say that the texture of Halo Top tastes so much more like ice cream than Arctic Zero. I snagged the vanilla and mixed it with..yes..of course PB. With only 240 cals for the entire pint..makes you feel a little less guilty for treating yourself! 

                                                                        Halo Top...definitely going to try this flavor! 

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend...xo

Alex